CanvasSpaces

[
    {
      "created_at":"2015-02-25T23:11:52Z",
      "description":"Updated description.",
      "id":40,
      "leader_id":3,
      "name":"newgroup3",
      "member_count":4,
      "join_type":"invite_only"
    },
    {
      "created_at":"2015-02-26T01:36:27Z",
      "description":"This is the sound.",
      "id":41,
      "leader_id":11,
      "member_count":"newgroup4",
      "size":1,
      "join_type":"request"
    },
    {
      "created_at":"2015-03-11T17:31:59Z",
      "description":"Pump up the volume.",
      "id":57,
      "leader_id":null,
      "member_count":"newgroup11",
      "size":0,
      "join_type":"free_to_join"}
]

Notes:

when called by a non-admin user, this endpoint only returns public groups (join_level: 'parent_context_auto_join')

List all groups for a user.

GET /api/v1/canvas_spaces/users/:user_id/groups

Params:

None

Returns:

[
  {
    "id" : 6,
    "created_at" : "2015-04-30T23:46:23Z",
    "leader_id" : null,
    "member_count" : 4,
    "join_type" : "invite_only",
    "description" : "Testing the form",
    "name" : "Test Group 3"
  },
  {
    "id" : 1,
    "created_at" : "2015-04-23T18:35:25Z",
    "leader_id" : null,
    "member_count" : 2,
    "join_type" : "free_to_join",
    "description" : null,
    "name" : "Test"
  }
]

Notes:

a non-admin user can only retreive their own groups
an admin user can retreive groups for any user

Create a group.

POST /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups

Form Params or JSON:

name (string, required, unique) - Name of the group.
description (string, required) - Description of the group.
members (array, optional) - Initial members of the group.
maillists (array, optional) - Maillists to sync with the group.
leader_id (int) - Canvas id of the leader of the group.
join_type (string) - Determines how users can join group. Value is: 'free_to_join', 'request' or 'invite_only'.

Returns:

  {
    "created_at":"2015-03-13T23:48:36Z",
    "description":"pizza party group",
    "id":67,
    "leader_id":3,
    "name":"vancity7",
    "size":1,
    "join_type":"free_to_join"
  }

Notes:

Any leader chosen for the group automatically becomes a member of the group.

Delete a group.

DELETE /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups/:group_id

Url Params:

:group_id (int) - Canvas id of the group to be deleted.

Returns:

{"message":"Group is destroyed."}

Get group info.

GET /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups/:group_id

Url Params:

:group_id (int) - Canvas id of the group.

Returns (Note: all successful operations return HTTP status 200 OK):

{
"id":40,
  "name":"newgroup3",
"description":"STP.",
"leader_id":12,
  "created_at":"2015-02-25T23:11:52Z",
  "size":4
}

Modify group info (description or join type (invite_only, request, free_to_join) )

PUT /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups/:group_id

Url Params:

:group_id (int) - Canvas id of the group.

Form Params: name (string) - New name for group description (string) - New description of the group join_level (string) leader_id (int) - New leader for group

Returns:

the modified group object

List users in group.

GET /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups/:group_id/users

Url Params:

:group_id (int) - Canvas id of the group.

Returns:

{
  "size": 4,
  "users":[
    {"id":12,"name":"user1"},
    {"id":3,"name":"patchin+canvas@gmail.com"},
    {"id":2,"name":"Patrick Chin"},
    "id":10,"name":"user1"}
  ]
}

Add user to group.

POST /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups/:group_id/users

Url Params:

:group_id (int) - Canvas id of the group.

Form Params:

user_id (int) - Canvas id of user to add.

Returns:

{"message":"Successfully added user."}

Remove user from group.

DELETE /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups/:group_id/users/:user_id

Url Params:

:group_id (int) - Canvas id of group
:user_id (int) - Canvas id of user to remove from the group.

Returns:

{"message":"Successfully removed user."}

Notes:

If the user is the leader of the group he/she cannot be removed from the group until another leader has been chosen.

Set leader of a group.

PUT /api/v1/canvas_spaces/groups/:group_id/leader

Url Params:

:group_id (int) - Canvas id of the group.

Form Params:

leader_id (int) - Canvas id of the new leader.

Returns:

{"message":"Successfully changed leader."}

Notes:

If leader is not a member of the group then he/she is added to the group.

Check that a group name is valid (e.g. unique)

GET /api/v1/canvas_spaces/validate/name/:name

Url Params:

name (string) - a propsed group name

Returns:

Valid group name: { "valid_group_name": true }

Invalid group name: { "valid_group_name": false, "message": "Some error message that describes the problem" }

Validate that a given SFU computing ID or alias is a valid Canvas user

GET /api/v1/canvas_spaces/validate/user/:username

Url Params:

:username (string) - SFU Computing ID or Alias to verify

Returns:

{ "valid_user": boolean }

Validate that a given SFU maillist name is a valid maillist

GET /api/v1/canvas_spaces/validate/maillist/:maillist

Url Params:

:maillist (string) - SFU Maillist name to validate

Returns:

{ "valid_maillist": boolean }

Test: get all users in the system (dev environment only)

GET /api/v1/canvas_spaces/test/users

Params:

None

Returns:

  [{"id":3,"name":"patchin+canvas@gmail.com"},
   {"id":5,"name":"patchin+canvastwo@gmail.com"},
   {"id":4,"name":"patchin+canvas2@gmail.com"}]

Errors:

The REST call will return with a non-200 OK status code. And the body will contain a JSON message with more information like the following:

{ "error":"Something bad happened." }

Installation:

Download the source to a directory
Edit the Gemfile of the Canvas rails application, add the following entry:

gem 'canvas_spaces', path: "<absolute path to canvas_spaces dir>"

In the Canvas Web UI create a groupset under the Site Admin account.
In the rails console set the role property to allow students to join multiple groups in one GroupCategory:

gs = GroupCategory.find_by_name('<name of groupset>')
gs.role = "student_organized"
gs.save

Add a config file named canvas_spaces.yml to the host rails config directory. The config file looks like the following:

development:
  acct_name: 'Site Admin'
  group_cat_name: 'groupset1'

There is an example config file in the canvas_spaces directory called canvas_spaces.yml.example.

acct_name is the account name that the groupset lives under
group_cat_name is the name of the GroupSet that contains the created groups

Notes:

No change is needed to the Canvas config/routes.rb file.

Authentication Notes:

Authorization is done either through developer token transmitted in the Authorization header ('Bearer ') or cookies set by logging into Canvas through the browser (_csrf_token, _normandy_session).

sfu/canvas-spaces

CanvasSpaces

Routes Summary:

Routes:

Show a login page and also let the user authenticate. Test page. To be removed in the future.

List all the groups.

List all groups for a user.

Create a group.

Delete a group.

Get group info.

Modify group info (description or join type (invite_only, request, free_to_join) )

List users in group.

Add user to group.

Remove user from group.

Set leader of a group.

Check that a group name is valid (e.g. unique)

Validate that a given SFU computing ID or alias is a valid Canvas user

Validate that a given SFU maillist name is a valid maillist

Test: get all users in the system (dev environment only)

Errors:

Installation:

Authentication Notes: